Hey guys, really haven't been able to keep up with beta (got a monk to 20 and really didn't have much time to do much with the druid - got frustrated with not being able to use addons and then just didn't have the time when they allowed them). Just a quick question on symbiosis with a lock.

Soul swap just takes the exact bleeds remaining and moves them to a new target and doesn't add or remove any time left based on other factors, correct? Just a snapshot of exactly what you have and moved to the new target.

I'm trying to think if I'll need to do much of anything different, but it seems like I should just try to get the rip-extending shreds in and move my bleeds immediately so I can get new ones up on the original target (which I should have at least 3 CPs ready). Am I missing any nuances or do you think it will be relatively straight forward? The only thing I can think of is trying to sync up an expiring rake with TF right before soul swaps cooldown is up so I could technically get 2 TF'ed rakes and at least one TF'ed rip.

Your description of Soul Swap is correct. The plan you are putting together is a good one, but will be difficult to pull off as a fresh 90. Our energy regen and combo point generation are VERY poor with starting raid gear. Just keeping the rotation going on a single target can be difficult. If you want to try this out make sure you have SotF. You won't have a chance if you take either of the other talents.

I've got a follow-up question: any ideas for a usefull macros for a soul-swap-symb? Stone guards looks nice for double dotting, I might try this tonight. Problem is setting focus on on boss is out of the question with the boss rotating frequently, clicking them & pushing SS button & returning to oryginal target is also kinda lame. Can any macro-gurus help a fellow cat out?

Someday, someone will best me. But it won't be today - and it won't be you.

A mouseover macro could work. I honestly was just getting into the feel of the fight and didn't actually get a chance to soul swap (and yeah, energy regen, lol), but this should work (unless the spell stays Symbiosis):

/cast [target=mouseover] Soul Swap

Outside of that I can't really think of anything off the top of my head.

Dysheki wrote:A mouseover macro could work. I honestly was just getting into the feel of the fight and didn't actually get a chance to soul swap (and yeah, energy regen, lol), but this should work (unless the spell stays Symbiosis):

/cast [target=mouseover] Soul Swap

Outside of that I can't really think of anything off the top of my head.

On Stone Guard (25man) I found using Symbiosis on a Rogue to be much more beneficial, there was no need to swap my bleeds to a new target, just let the old one run off with my bleeds on it and Redirect my remaining combos onto the new one and apply fresh bleeds. Using Soul Swap seemed clunky to me, while a macro would help I just don't really see the benefit of building bleeds up twice when I have no control over which Guardian is going to get moved and when.

2 reasons why redirect is not good for this fight.1. Redirect is on a 1 minute cooldown. Soulswap is 30 seconds.2. When one of the dogs is pulled out to stop gaining energy damage on it is reduced by 90%. Leaving your bleeds on that target is wasted damage.

When you move bleeds off of a target onto another your combo points stay with your current target. Very helpful if you get lucky enough to move the bleeds to the second active dog and keep combo points on the primary target.

4 dogs 1 Main target who is overloading - he will usually be there for approx 45sec to 1min1 non overloading dog who will be swapped constantly - roughly every 20-30secBoth of these are in front of me (so to speak)2 other dogs off in la-la land

When the Main target is done overloading and a new dog (who's about to overload) is running in you Redirect to the new Main Target. The old overload dog stays in front of me for another ~20 seconds as he will be the lowest on energy, and will still have my bleeds up on him from when he was overloading. I let them tick off without worry, and instantly have a 5 combo DoC buffed Rake and Rip on my new main target. The timing seemed to work out just fine for me - Granted as my raid group gears up this might change, and maybe I'm missing something but this is what worked out best for me. I personally saw a higher dps gain from using redirect in the manner I described instead of soul swapping my bleeds every time the tank brought over a dog that was just going to run off again in ~20sec. And thus loosing my damage on my main target, even briefly. Of course I did put up a FF and DoC buffed Rake on that dog but nothing more, choosing to spend my limited energy and combo points on the main target.

I understand what you're saying Tinder, and I do see the benefits of Soul Swap under normal circumstances, however I did not feel, nor see the benefits on this fight.